ST. AGATHA – Town officials here have not given up on their plans to change the cost-sharing formula in SAD 33, believing the town is paying a disproportionate share of the school district costs.

Officials are monitoring a bill that could make school district costs more equitable between St. Agatha and Frenchville.

“We are looking to the Legislature to rectify the disparity,” Ryan Pelletier, St. Agatha town manager, said Wednesday. “Sen. John L. Martin has introduced a bill, although it has not been given a number or hearing date.

“The bill will put a cap on the difference that exists between a high [per pupil cost] and a low [per pupil cost] between two towns in a school district,” he continued. “We asked that the difference not be more than 25 percent, on a per-student cost.”

The 37-year-old district has been using the town’s state valuation to fund the local cost of education. Officials in St. Agatha, which has a higher state valuation, and a lower number of students attending school, claim the town is paying too much for education.

St. Agatha asked for a change in the local funding formula last spring and formed a committee that included two school directors, one from each municipality, and four residents at large – two from each town – to research the issue.

An effort to have residents of the two St. John Valley towns vote on the issue died last October when the committee deadlocked, 3-3, on a vote for a referendum on the issue.

St. Agatha officials had proposed a change, basing 60 percent of the local cost on student population and 40 percent on state valuation. They also had proposed that the new funding formula be phased in over a five-year period.

At the present time, St. Agatha pays 52 percent of the local budget, compared to Frenchville’s 48 percent. In dollar amounts, St. Agatha is paying $471,483, while Frenchville is paying $446,693.

St. Agatha officials, however, are looking at the cost on a per-pupil basis. They claim they are paying about $3,575 for each local child while Frenchville pays about $2,030 per student. St. Agatha has 135 pupils and Frenchville has 233 pupils in the system.

Town Manager Pelletier said the town pays 52 percent of the school bill, but only has 37 percent of the district’s students. Frenchville has 67 percent of the students and pays 48 percent of the bill.

Pelletier said St. Agatha plans to track Martin’s bill and others proposed on cost sharing in school districts, as well as attend hearings in Augusta to support changes.

Pelletier said that about a dozen two-town school districts in Maine have the same kind of problem.

St. Agatha has formed a municipal education committee which includes the town manager, three selectmen, three school board members, a teacher from each of the district’s two schools and three residents at large.

“That’s where we came up with the idea of a bill in the Legislature,” Pelletier said. “The committee is also looking at declining enrollments, what is happening within the two schools, the needs of the students and the buildings.

“It isn’t all about money,” Pelletier said. “We have other concerns about the future.”

The local committee will meet again when Martin’s bill is assigned a number and hearings are scheduled.

Officials of the two towns have not met since October’s deadlocked vote.

Pelletier said the town is waiting because the Maine Department of Education also is looking at the problem with cost disparity. The state department is expected to make a report on the situation to the present Legislature, Pelletier said.

“The state does not want SADs to split up,” he said. “The present system is driving towns against each other, and we hope to find ways to address the situation.”

St. Agatha officials claim it is a matter of fairness. Their problem is that St. Agatha’s state valuation has risen dramatically in recent years, because the town borders on Long Lake.

St. Agatha’s state valuation is listed at $33,850,000, while Frenchville’s state valuation is $30,850,000.

St. Agatha started looking at educational costs when it was preparing its annual budget last February. Officials learned that while municipal expenditures had remained fairly steady in recent years, the costs for educating children kept rising.